Re: Performing solo loop improvisations

["steve lawson" <steve@steve-lawson.co.uk>]

>For those of you who perform solo improv gigs, just you and a mountain (or
>molehill) of electronics: how do you go about creating a composition in
>real time?  It's great to sit in the basement and endlessly tweak those
>loops, but you can't get away with that in front of an audience.  Or can
>you?  Please expound on your technical, philosophical, etc. approaches to
>this situation.

I tend to gig with a mixture of composed pieces, shell ideas and free
improv. The most important aspect in the free improv, for me, is control of
the equipment. If I wasn't in control of the JamMan, then I couldn't loop
things on the fly, or restart loops when a bit is being recorded that I
don't like or whatever.

It's possible to practice improv. Just do at home what you would do on
stage, and when you get to the point where a significant majority of what
you come up with is worth listening to, try it in front of an audience. I
normally do one ambient 'soundscape' type tune in my set, sometimes of the
back of another tune - there are two in Real Audio form on my web-site.

Try setting yourself boundaries when practicing - as I think Robert Fripp
once said, it's not 'practice unless you set yourself limitations' - improv
around a feeling or a mood or a tonal centre, or using a certain technique,
or with invervallic limitations, or using specific effects... try sounds
that you have no real command of and then react in real time to what comes
out... tape your practices, listen and evaluate.

I find that my mental state when in front of an audience is so different
from at home - I'm much more alert and acutely aware of the possibility 
that
this could be very dull! At, I've hand loops running for up to 7 or 8 
hours,
on stage the longest so far is about 8 minutes. If I had an EDP, perhaps my
horizons would expand!!

New question - does anyone on here us a Protools set up live? Is there
anyway of starting and stopping Protools loops with a foot control? If it
was, it would surely be the ultimate live looping device, with almost
limitless stackable loops, no discernible degradation in sound quality,
total separation of layers.... I can't afford a Mac G4 at the moment, but
one day, maybe...

cheers

Steve
http://www.steve-lawson.co.uk - subscribe to my new mailing list here.
steve@steve-lawson.co.uk

"I know there's a balance, I see it every time I swing past."
                                                           - John 
Mellencamp